Craft Book Month: Garden Party Selvage Wristlet

It's Craft Book Month at Craft Buds!

Have you been celebrating?  My craft book library is still growing – I have some oldies that feature more traditional quilt patterns, and the more recent acquisitions are split between quilting and knitting.  I like to get craft books from my local library to check out the patterns before I buy; if there are enough projects that catch my eye, I get my own copy of the book.  (I don’t know about you, but it can take me a while to start (not to mention complete!) a project, and by then the library copies would surely be seriously overdue.)

When I picked up Everyday Handmade by Cassie Barden and Adrienne Smitke, the first project that caught my eye was this selvage wristlet.  Selvages are cool.  These strips that may seem like trimmings to drop straight in your trash can actually have a lot of promise.  For this particular pattern, you don’t need much print fabric beyond the selvage strip, so if, before you knew any better, you were stingy (like me) and trimmed your selvages really close to the edge, this is a great project for them.

I decided to try to stick close to the look and feel of the wristlet in the book, using a green print for the outside accents. When I make another wristlet, I’ll use a bolder color and print. The pattern is easy to follow and the finished wristlet looks just like I hoped it would.  One tip: Assemble the selvage front panels and trim them to size (rounding the corners) first. Then use them as your template for cutting the lining pieces. The lining on mine is a little big and not a perfect fit because the pieces I started with weren’t quite a match for the assembled outer pieces.

This project is appropriate for a beginner sewist, even if you’ve never sewn in a zipper.  Oh, that reminds me of another tip: My needle-nose pliers were the perfect tool for moving the zipper pull out of the way of my presser foot as I sewed alongside the zipper.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll continue to follow along the Craft Book Month blog hop!
--Elizabeth

All month long in September, our friends at Craft Buds will celebrate sewing, quilting and all kinds of craft books by shining the spotlight on new releases, interviewing authors and editors who make the magic happen and giving you a chance to win.

Blog Hop

Week One
Sunday 9/2: Hopeful Threads / The Jolly Jabber

Monday 9/3: Stitchery Dickory Dock / Me Sew Crazy
Tuesday 9/4: Olive & Ollie / Sew Sweetness
Wednesday 9/5: Fabric Seeds / The Busy Bean
Thursday 9/6: CraftFoxes / Stitched In Color
Friday 9/7: Katie's Korner / A Prairie Sunrise

Week Two
Sunday 9/9: Sweet Diesel Designs / missknitta's studio
Monday 9/10: Sew Tara / Clover and Violet
Tuesday 9/11: Sew Fantastic / amylouwho
Wednesday 9/12: Projektownia Jednoiglec / Two More Seconds
Thursday 9/13: Ellison Lane Quilts / Don't Call Me Betsy
Friday 9/14: Live a Colorful Life / LRstitched

Week Three
Sunday 9/16: Fairy Face Designs / Canoe Ridge Creations
Monday 9/17: Inspire Me Grey / Freshly Pieced
Tuesday 9/18: Lindsay Sews / The Cute Life
Wednesday 9/19: The Littlest Thistle / Sew Crafty Jess
Thursday 9/20: Urban Stitches / imagine gnats
Friday 9/21: Sew Bittersweet Designs / The Plaid Scottie

Week Four

Link up your craft book project at Craft Buds from Sept 23-30 from your blog or Flickr account, and enter to win prizes. Winners will be announced on Monday, October, 1!

To participate in the month-long contest, just link up any project you've made from a pattern in a craft book. It's that easy! You'll tell us a little about the book, the project, how you personalized it, etc.

Rules:

1) One entry per person.
2) Your craft book project must have been completed in 2012.
3) Create a new blog post or Flickr photo (dated September 1, 2012 or later) and link back to Craft Buds/Craft Book Month in your post or photo description.

No time to create a project? This month, just follow Craft Buds and comment to win some new craft books and lots of giveaways! We'll also have expert Q-and-As to show you what it takes to write a craft book, from the initial idea to the layout, photography and the actual printed product.